The day draws nigh: Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica is about ready to throw open the doors of its new emergency department to begin serving patients.

Hundreds of area residents already got a first-hand look at the new space earlier last month during a special open house event Tanner hosted on Nov. 3. Since then, crews have been working to clean, finish the installation of medical equipment and ensure the space is ready to serve patients.

“We’ve tried to be meticulous to make sure we deliver seamless patient care from the second we move into the new space,” said Eric Dalton, administrator for Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, the new emergency department will open at 7 a.m. Staff will continue providing care to any patients in the existing emergency department until everyone has been either admitted or discharged, but anyone arriving after 7 a.m. will be directed to the new emergency department. Ambulances will also begin using the hospital’s new ambulance bay at that time, and signage on campus will be switched to direct visitors to the new unit.

The new emergency department and surgical services unit represent the largest expansion of healthcare facilities in Villa Rica since Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica opened its new hospital facility in 2003. With 37 exam rooms — including isolation rooms, trauma rooms and triage rooms — the expansion more than doubles the number of available beds in the hospital’s current emergency department, as well as offering on-unit diagnostic imaging services, including digital X-ray and a second CT scanner for the facility.

The rest of the Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica expansion, featuring the hospital’s new surgical services unit, is scheduled to open Dec. 17. Staff is working in the meantime to move equipment from the hospital’s current surgical services unit to the new space.

The expansion’s new operating suites will be capable of providing more advanced surgical procedures, including total joint replacement and the latest minimally invasive and robotic-assisted procedures. The number of short-stay surgery rooms more than doubles to 19, and an eight-bay post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and two new gastroenterology suites have been built. Altogether, the project features more than 66,000 square feet of clinical space.

“We’re very excited to open this expansion to our patients,” said Dalton. “I know it feels like it’s been a long time coming, but this is going to enable us to continue meeting the medical needs of this community for years to come. I’m grateful to all our team here at Tanner who are working down to the wire to make this transition to the new space easy for our patients.”

More information on the hospital is available online at www.tanner.org.

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